Salang

I'll keep this one short and sweet. We took a quick trip up to the Salang Pass the other day - an area well known for both its beauty and its deadly avalanches.  I'll just let the pictures speak for themselves - turned out to be a pretty rad, sporadic trip to Salang, glad I got to check it out finally. 

winter in Kabul

I have been told dozens of times how cold it would be here in the winter.  Actually experiencing the cold is something different though.  I've lived in cold area my entire life, and this isn't necessarily any worse - it's really just the lack of proper heating anywhere that makes it a little more rough.  It is interesting, however, to see Kabul in the winter time - especially how tough the people here are. I really don't know how people survive live through winters here year after year with such a lack of basic necessities (well many people don't actually survive the winters unfortunately).

The winter has been interesting though, and the best thing to do is stay positive - even when all your pipes are frozen and there hasn't been running water for the past month.  We're doing what we can to stay warm, and inshallah the coming weeks will bring warmer weather.  Below are some pictures I've been taken over the past few weeks here.

a bike ride through Shāre Naw park

I took these photos back in the beginning of November 11' and I just came across them sitting on my computer. I thought that some of them were worth sharing. I remember the day I took these, I was both bored and stressed out - and decided to take a bike ride to Shāre Naw park, which coincidentally is located in Shāre Naw (new city). I came across a group of eager young Afghan boys playing soccer (football), and as soon as they noticed I had a camera the usual Afghan 'pose-off' began. One thing I noticed quickly upon coming to Kabul is that young kids here love to get their photo taken while posing in various ways. I also got some shots of a pick-up soccer game on the basketball court, which I doubt is hardly used for basketball. Anyways, nothing too special but like I said, I thought they were worth sharing.